Album Review: Sara Storer - Lovegrass

Storytelling is at the heart of any great country artist and Sara Storer is still a great storyteller. Lovegrass, her fifth studio record and her first of entirely new material since 2007's Silver Skies, comes after marriage and family life – experiences that are on this album's sleeve. She openly admits the title track is written for her husband (it doesn't have the same tension as a Kasey Chambers/Shane Nicholson duet, it's far warmer) and other cuts – Come On Rain, Heart & Sold, You're My Everything – can be attributed to that same family muse. Even when it's not about them, a romanticised Australian country life underpins everything here.

One point that the record steps out from personal accounts is on ANZAC ode Pozie, which features a particularly wise-sounding John Williamson. It cements this as a proud Australian record, but it's not flag-waving nationalism, it's a tactfully-delivered and humble dose of self-esteem. The musicianship is impeccably unobtrusive; existing as a platform rather than an engine room, with Matt Fell's producing equally balanced and restrained. If there is a fault here it's the overarching familiarity and lack of experimentation, but such excitement would be at odds with this selection of songs.

Storer doesn't need to prove anything on Lovegrass after the career she's had, and the break has given her a chance to choose the time and manner of her return. This feels right, it feels natural and it feels comfortable.